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Thursday

Love your parents now like they were already gone

There's only 30-some of them so take the time to read each word carefully as it is a lesson to all of us to let our parents know how much we love them.

Even though they might get you mad, make you feel like a little kid, annoy you, critizice you, and tell you what to do they are still your parents.

You can never EVER replace your parents.

So cherish them while you have them.

Because when they are gone you won't have the time to be with them, hug them, tell them you love them, enjoy a meal with them, go on adventures with them, ask them for advice, have them help you with tough decisions, be a shoulder to cry on, walk you down the aisle, share jokes with, rejoice in wonderful memories, laugh about nothing, and enjoy each other's company.

With much love, this is dedicated to my parents.

I love you Dad. You have been there for me these past 12 years and no amount of thank you's or words can ever show you how much love I have for you and how much I appreciate you. You have put up with many teenage temper tantrums, dramas, lies, hurtful words, and so much I am ashamed to even recall. But yet you have not let me go. You still see me as your little girl that you used to carry on your shoulders as we walked down the street to McDonald's on the many weekends you came to visit me while I lived with my Mom. Thank you for so many great memories. I will cherish them always and can't wait until my wedding day when you get to walk me down the aisle; when I give birth to my firstborn and give you your first grandchild; I can't wait to make so many new memories with you as I become a professional woman that you helped create with not only monetary help but also love and patience (lots of it!).

I love you Mom. You raised me as a single mother in a new country with little money and a lot of knowledge. We went through a lot even though we were only together for 10 years of my childhood. I have missed you these last 12 years and I hope you know I still love you. No matter what I still have love for you and thank you for shaping me into the young lady I turned out to be. I hope you will be happy for the woman I turned out to be without you. My dad has helped me become this woman and I think even though you got divorced you somehow knew he would be a great dad - I can assure you he is and will be forever a wonderful father. I thank you for bringing me a wonderful little sister who I also haven't seen in 12 years but I hope you know that I love her as well. The three of us will soon meet and know we will have LOTS of catching up to do. I have many conversations to have with you and with her as she grows up to be a young lady - and sooner than we would like she will be a woman. But I hope that one day we will be closer (much closer... I don't like having you an ocean away) so I can help mold and shape my little sister become a great and strong woman. I can't wait until I see you.

They both have made great contributions to make me the person I am today.

Let's face it: if it weren't for them getting together and deciding to get married and have me, I wouldn't be here becoming a professional woman, loving my life, loving my parents, and knowing what it really means to truly love someone.

They have made me realize that in life there is such as things as mistakes and hardships and wrong - but that should not stop me from loving them, myself or others.

Negativity brings negativity and I don't want that in my life.

I could be saddened (which at one point in my life I was) about the fact that my parents are divorced, I haven't seen my mom in 12 years, can't interact with my sister and help her grow up, didn't graduate college in 4 years (it's going on 5.5 years come this summer).

But so far my life has so many more positives that the negativities just seem so futile and it is useless to keep picking at old wounds.

I did that for a few years during high school and I finally realized a few years ago that I can keep going in that path of darkness and negativity or change my attitude and know there is bad things that happen but I have to brush them off after a REALLY good cry.

So thank you mom and dad. You are the main two people I have to thank for bringing me into this crazy world we call home. I know that if I can make it through these past 20+ years, I can make the next 80 or 90 really worthwhile.